A Fine Idea review - the ambition is admirable; the basement, less forgiving

Everything we have - theatre, our economy, the silver rings on my typing fingers - is built directly or indirectly off the backs of those less fortunate. We all know, but we conveniently forget. Christine Bacon's newest play attempts to pull the curtain back with a zealous flourish.

In plush linen, pink nails on display, Jo (Ella Bryant) explains her familial connection to the charity sector and the concept of "international development" created by her grandfather in the 1940s. Then the very man, Ben Hardy (Kevin Trainor), and his wife Laura (Georgina Rich) appear, agonising over the then-president's inaugural address, lobbying various politicians in the White House together in their Southern drawls, bursting with neo-colonialist but well-meaning (fine) ideas.

Jo is flung into the recent political turmoil in Kenya. Working for a relief organisation, and through her friendship with revolutionary Kala (Grace Saif), Jo has the wool well and truly pulled from her eyes, exposing the ugly reality of crippling debt, crooked deals, and increasing inequality between the Global North and South.

Where the play soars is in its onstage talent. Bryant is fresh from drama school, intense and buzzing with Jo's idealism and naivety. Rich plays various characters (Florence Nightingale, but we'll come to that later) with precise accent work and clear characterisation, transforming side roles into unforgettable theatrical nuggets. Saif has a tough task - asked to speak for the whole of a country, abused and overlooked but alight with political and personal passion - which she does with grace and conviction. Trainor, apart from the Southern patriarch, is our comic relief, bouncing around the stage in some of the more fanciful moments.

Speaking of fantasy, the piece struggles when it leaps outside the everyday. Bacon's script is cinematic in its scope, and Charlotte Westenra's direction does its best to embody it. Protests, dream sequences, flashbacks, ghosts, carnival sections, horror illusions, disaster, comedy, tragedy, and an appearance of Florence Nightingale herself all prove too much for the straining actors and the billowing colourful nets of Emma Williams' set. Tom Smith's rather melodramatic sound effects at various points tip the piece from wide-ranging and impactful into rather silly territory, detracting from the very real and meaningful points of the piece. Streamlining the narrative might improve things, but explaining almost 80 years of global policy is a tall order for any single piece, especially in a basement.

Based on Jason Hickel's book The Divide and meticulously researched by Bacon, the play seems to mirror its own subject matter. A fine idea, but the predominantly white cast and overextension of the creatives mean we leave more confused than conscientised.

A Fine Idea
Until 4 July 2026
Arcola Theatre
24 Ashwin Street, London E8 3DL